


Still Me

by Callaeidae3



Series: KWmonth (Keithtober x Whumptober) [6]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Episode: s02e08 The Blade of Marmora, Team Voltron Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-26
Updated: 2018-10-26
Packaged: 2019-08-08 01:33:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,424
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16419902
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callaeidae3/pseuds/Callaeidae3
Summary: KWmonth prompts: Red Lion/Found FamilyKeith and Red have some bonding time after the Trials of Marmora. The Paladins remind Keith that nothing about him has changed, only his perception.





	Still Me

_They know._

Keith doesn't want to think about it too much. Red seems to think he's overthinking it already. She's known all along, since the day they first met, the moment they bonded.

But Keith's gone over eighteen years not knowing about the other half of his heritage...

He rubs his eyes and settles down on the floor of the cockpit. It's not exactly comfy, but he's wearing his own clothes and it's dark and it's quiet here. The wound on his shoulder flares with pain every second minute, but it's nothing compared to the emotional strain he's under.

_I can't just accept this, Red. I thought I knew who I was, but I don't know who I am anymore._

_You. Same._

_Same as...?_

_You._

_I don't understand what you're getting at._

A vision swirls behind his eyes. Keith opens his mind up to it.

An unfamiliar place. The night sky is vibrant, the atmosphere so transperant it feels like he could fall upward. Later, he and Red will take a flight together up there, and his soul longs to do so right now, but first he must -

He's sitting at a table, a great dining table, all kinds of noblemen and noblewomen seated around. They're all looking at him, waiting. Keith doesn't know these people but Red somehow does, and so he stands and addresses them with the voice of a king.

Keith jolts back to himself with a gasp. "Those were King Alfor's memories," he whispers, "and yours."

Red purrs. She nudges his mind, prompting him.

"What...?"

_I have shown you._

Keith grits his teeth against a stab of pain in shoulder. He really should've taken that second dose of pain relief Coran offered him.

_Paladin._

_Red, I'm sorry. I can't think straight right now. I don't understand what you're trying to get me to understand._

_Keith_.

_What?_

_Alfor._

_Yes, what about him?_

_King._

_Red -_

"Keith? You in there?"

He groans. His headache is bad enough as it is without having to listen to anything. Moreover, Keith's not in a mood for a lecture.

"It's okay if you'd rather be alone," Shiro calls. "I understand. I just want to come by and make sure you're okay every now and then."

_Galra blood._

_Not now, Red._

_Little brother._

"Keith?"

He sighs. "Better let him in."

A few seconds later, Shiro's coming in through the cockpit doors, a massive blanket draped over his shoulders like a cape and an armful of medical supplies and space juice. A couple of ration bars slip from his grasp as he lowers the stuff to the floor.

Keith stares at Shiro, astonished. "What...is...?"

Shiro flashes him a tired grin. "Thought you might be wanting to camp out here for a while so I brought you a few necessities."

"But I... "

"...you?"

Keith swallows. He curls his fingers into the material of his jacket.

He can't say it. It's always been a rule: if Keith's hungry, then he has to come to the dinner table to eat or else he gets nothing. No food in the bedrooms, even if he's sick. He has to understand that his foster parents are stressed enough as it is having to put up with his behaviour on top of their running a business. He needs to learn to pull his own weight; he can't expect people to want to do things for him.

Shiro shakes out the blanket and lays it out over his legs. He crouches down again and organises the stuff he brought in so that the most important things are easily within arm's reach (bandages, gauze and hand sanitizer, painkillers and hydrating space juice) and the not so urgent things (snacks, extra medical supplies and water pouches) are behind them.

_Keith. Paladin. Human-Galra. Friend. Little brother._

"I'll be back in a few hours," Shiro says. "We're about to get started on putting a plan together with Kolivan, but it's going to take quite a bit time. I'll come back and make sure you're okay, make sure your shoulder is getting better and not worse, as soon as I can." He reaches out and lays a hand on Keith's uninjured shoulder. "Call me if you're not feeling well, okay? Even if it's because you want a bit of company."

Keith is too numb to answer. He just looks at Shiro and tries to process the fact that finding out Keith's part Galra hasn't changed Shiro's perception of him.

When Shiro leaves, Keith lies down and curles up beneath the blanket. He bunches the ends of it together to make a small pillow and closes his eyes.

Red reassures him that nothing has changed, only his perception of himself. She sends him a vision of a lamp glowing with the flame of a single candle, a soft darkness and a soothing light.

Keith falls into an exhausted sleep as Red embraces him with her mind.

 

 

Pidge stares at the green notepaper. She stares at it, intensely, waiting for the words she needs to come to mind but they never do.

She groans. "Argh, I'm no good at this."

On the other side of the dining table, Lance has his tongue stuck out as he starts writing his second line. Hunk's already finished his and is looking like he's wanting to add more. Shiro's on his third bit of paper already, although there's one screwed up in a ball beside him, so really it's only the second.

Coran left a quick note which is now sitting beside Shiro. Unsurprisingly, there's none from Allura, and neither Kolivan nor his buddy Antok would've known how to join in even if they'd asked them.

There's no red paper.

Lance heaves a sigh, tapping his pen against the table. "This is harder than I thought it would be."

Hunk hums.

Pidge's paper is still blank. "Guys, I literally have no idea what to say. 'You're Galra, so what, Keith? It's all goods.'"

"I just put that finding out he's part Galra doesn't mean we're going to kick him off the team it anything," Hunk says.

Lance nods. "I said he's still Keith. It's not like anything's changed. I mean, he's been part Galra all the time we've known him and well, y'know, his entire life."

Pidge frowns. The green notepaper is still blank and so is her mind.

Shiro leans back in his seat. He looks absolutely exhausted, shadows under his eyes and a strain to his expression that wasn't there before he and Keith left for the Blade of Marmora.

"He just needs to know that we're not about to reject him," Shiro says. "It's be better if he heard it direct from us, but this is still a good alternative."

Pidge sighs. She thinks of Keith, presumably still asleep in Red where Shiro saw him last. She thinks of the unfocused look in his eyes, the bruises beginning to reveal themselves on his face as they left the hangar. The way they hadn't seen him since.

It was a surprise to them all, to hear from Shiro and Kolivan about Keith's biology. Without a doubt, it must've been a shock for Keith to find out and a rather overwhelming idea to wrap his head around. But it's not like they hate him...

And yet, considering Allura's reaction...

Yes, Keith does need to know that they don't think any less of him, and they're the ones who need to tell him.

Pidge turns on the pen and starts writing.

 

 

It's seventeen hours of sleep later that Keith wakes. He's stiff all over, and sore, but having sleep so long he does feel a bit better. Marginally.

Red hums, still wrapping up his thoughts in the warmth of her consciousness.

He yawns, pushes himself up and reaches for one of the water pouches Shiro brought down -

Notepaper. Green and blue and yellow and grey and orange. Keith's heart beats faster.

Are these... farewell letters?

But then his eyes catch the words on the green paper and he stills.

You're Galra, so what? It's all goods!

And the blue.

Being part Galra doesn't change who you are - it's just a part of who you are: Keith Kogane, the best pilot the universe has ever seen!

And the yellow.

Keith, we miss you up here with us, buddy. You're part of the family! Finding out that your part Galra doesn't change that!

By the time he gets to Shiro and Coran's notes, his vision's too blurry to make out the words.

Red purrs.

_Keith. Human. Galra. Paladin. Family._

 

 

 


End file.
